Bay Area briefs

SF OFFICIAL: NO ALARM BEFORE CABLE CAR MISHAP: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco transit officials say an alarm that is supposed to alert authorities to obstructions on the city's cable car line did not sound before a cable car hit a metal object and came to a sudden stop, injuring seven people.

The mishap occurred on Wednesday morning as the car was heading downhill around 9 miles per hour. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Director of Transit John Haley says the car hit a 1 and ½ inch screw or bolt in the cable groove and abruptly stopped.

Haley tells the San Francisco Chronicle that pieces of paper in the past have set off the system's alarms, so it's not clear why the metal object didn't do so.

Five of the injured were taken to a hospital, one of them with life-threatening injuries.

3 SHOT IN VALLEJO HOME INVASION: VALLEJO . (AP) — Police in Vallejo are investigating an early morning home invasion that left three people with gunshot wounds.

Police say two armed men kicked in the door of the home around 3:45 a.m. Thursday. A mother and her two adult children who live at the home were shot.

They are expected to survive.

Additional details, including a motive, were not immediately available.

SAN JOSE POLICE : MAN IN HANDCUFFS ESCAPES: SAN JOSE (AP) — San Jose police are looking for a 32-year-old man they say slipped through his handcuffs and drove off in a police van.

Anthony Sanchez remained at large on Wednesday night, hours after police say he escaped.

Sanchez was arrested around 3:30 p.m. on drug-related warrants. San Jose police spokesman Jason Dwyer says detectives put him in the back of an unmarked police minivan in handcuffs.

Police linked two sets of handcuffs together to reduce the stress on his shoulders.

Dwyer tells the San Jose Mercury News Sanchez appears to have taken advantage of the arrangement and slipped the linked cuffs under his body to get his hands in front of him before driving off.

An officer standing near the vehicle was doing paperwork, and the keys were in the ignition. Police later found the van about a mile away.

FEDS SEIZE 2,300 ROUNDS OF AMMO AT PORT OF OAKLAND: OAKLAND (AP) — Federal authorities say U.S. Customs agents have seized about 2,300 rounds of ammunition hidden in air filters of cars headed to Mongolia at the Port of Oakland.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Spokesman Frank Falcon said Thursday that custom agents discovered the ammunition in early December while searching an outbound shipping container with three cars —a 2006 Lexus RX400, a 2006 Toyota Land Cruiser and a 2007 Toyota Camry.

Falcon said the seized rounds were hidden in the cars' air filters included those for rifles and shotguns.

Authorities say the value of the seized ammunition and three cars is more than $45,000.

Investigators He said the investigation determined the attempted smuggling was not an act of organized crime. It was likely an individual acting alone.